Friday, July 29, 2011

Computer Hardware Basic Information

If you are not aware about the hardware components of your personal computer, here is an article which will give you some computer hardware basic information in brief.

Computer has lately become an indispensable part of our lives. Almost all the households in United States either own or have access to a computer. We depend on this machine for most of our day-to-day activities, on the professional as well as personal front. Being machines, computers are also subject to various problems. Sometimes you may run into some software or hardware related issues with your computer at a point wherein you need to do some urgent work. In such a scenario, possessing computer hardware basic information can help you in computer hardware repair and maintenance to a great extent.

Computer Set

 Basic Information on Computer Hardware

Computer hardware consists of the various tangible components of the computer such as CPU, hard disk drive, RAM, motherboard, keyboard, mouse, power supply unit, printer, etc. Let's have a detailed look at the various hardware components of a computer.
  • Central Processing Unit
A central processing unit, also referred to as a processor or a CPU, is an electronic circuit which facilitates data processing by executing various computer programs. Data processing by CPU involves four steps - fetching the instruction from the program memory, decoding the instruction, executing the desired operation and displaying the results.

  • Motherboard
The computer motherboard, also referred to as the main board, is the central printed circuit board, located in the central processing unit of the computer. The motherboard facilitates the communication between the various components of the computer.
  • Hard Drive
Hard drive, also referred to as the hard disk drive, is a non-volatile storage device in the computer, which facilitates the storage of digitally encoded data.
  • Random Access Memory (RAM)
Random access memory, more often referred to as RAM, is a volatile data storage component of the computer, wherein the data is stored only until the computer is on. RAM facilitates accessing of data stored on the computer in any order. Read more on what is a computer RAM (random access memory).
  • Monitor
The computer monitor, or display, is an electrical equipment, programmed to display various images generated by the computer. Older variants of the computer used cathode ray tube (CRT) displays, while the modern variants use thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD).
  • Keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is an input device used to type text and numbers into a particular computer program and give commands to the operating system. Most commonly used keyboards are the ones with QWERTY layout, which facilitate typing Latin based languages.
  • Mouse
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device, which is used to feed instructions to a computer. The device works by detecting two-dimensional motions which is proportionate to the surface on which the mouse is moved.
  • Printer
A printer is a hardware component of the computer which is used to produce a hard copy of the data which is stored in a digital format on the computer storage. These printers can be attached to the computer with the help of a printer cable or a USB cable.
  • Power Supply Unit
A computer power supply unit is a computer hardware which is used to convert the power from the mains to a voltage that is necessary to run the computer. It also regulates the flow of power to the other various parts of computer, thus keeping the computer secured for fluctuating electricity.
  • Modem
A modem is used to transfer information through the Internet. The term modem stands for modulate and demodulate. The computer uses digital signals, while the telephone uses analog signals. A modem changes digital signals to analog signals and back to digital signals.

Most of the hardware components of desktop computers and notebook computers are the same. The computer works together when all of these hardware components are collaborated with each other along with the appropriate software. Aforementioned computer hardware basic information will help you to know your personal computer better, and use it more efficiently.

*Source: www.buzzle.com

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